Political Commentaries for Q1 of 2025: Part One

Political Commentaries for Q1 of 2025

Part One

I posted after Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election that I would not be writing too much about politics anymore, so as to focus on my Christian writings and especially on updating my translation of the Bible (see the end of Trump’s Victory, Kamala’s Lies, Abortion, and Other Thoughts on the 2024 Election). But I do want to comment on occasion about political happenings, so once a quarter might work. I’ve been doing that with my Covid website for quite some time, and that seems to be working well.

That said, I wrote one article about Trump’s new term (see Trump's Three Best Day One Actions). But here I will go back to the inauguration itself to comment on an incident that happened then; then I will comment on a variety of other political happenings in the Trump White House and otherwise in the first quarter of 2025, which is to say, January, February, and March.

John Roberts Messes Up the Oath Again

Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed Obama’s inauguration oath, so much so, they had to repeat it, “out of an abundance of caution.” Then he did it again with Trump. This time, he messed up by rushing into the oath, not giving Melania time to get by Trump’s side so that he could place his hand on the Bibles she was holding. His children were also unable to get into place behind him as was planned.

This was in contrast with how Justice Kavanaugh handled J. D. Vance’s oath. Kavanaugh waited until Vance’s wife and children were behind him to begin the oath.

But as it was with Roberts and Trump, Roberts’ rushing enabled the left to criticize Trump for not having his hand on the Bible as he was repeating the oath. But it was his intent to do so, but Roberts kept it from happening. This thus became the first illegitimate criticism by the left of Trump for his second term. But it would by no means be the last.

Trump’s Tariffs

Conservatives generally believe in free trade with other countries, but Trump believes in “fair trade not free trade.” By “fair” he means that if they have tariffs on us, then we should have reciprocal tariffs on them. He also believes tariffs are a way to get other countries to act in ways that are agreeable to our national interests.

To that end, he has imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China, the European Union (EU), and other countries. The first two are to get Canada and Mexico to take steps to reduce illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl into our country that surged under Biden’s failed presidency.

Otherwise, his tariffs are designed to force companies to move manufacturing into the USA and to increase investment in the USA by companies and other countries. And that is working. Literally trillions of dollars in building of manufacturing plants and investments in the USA have been promised.

However, all you hear from the mainstream media is that the tariffs will raise prices. That is possible, but Trump is looking at the long-term not the short term. As he put it, “China has a 100-year plan, while we have a quarter plan.” But he wants to change that and have the USA have a more long-term focus. That focus will eventually lead to many more high-paying jobs in the USA. That will in turn lead to economic growth and a booming economy overall. It will also make the USA more independent, so we are not so dependent on other countries, even enemies like China, for critical items, like we saw with PPE and Covid tests during the pandemic.

But it is true it takes years to build manufacturing plants and time for investments to bear fruit. If prices do indeed increase but jobs and growth are slow in coming, then that could cost Republicans the House and/ or Senate in the 2026 midterms, and that would stifle Trump’s agenda in the second half of his second term.

The Economy

Inflation increased more than expected for January and February 2025. That could reasonably be blamed on Biden, as Trump’s agenda had not yet had time to take effect. But when March’s reports come out, the media is sure to blame Trump if prices continue to rise. And if economic growth is slow for Q1 2025, the media will also blame Trump, though again, most of that will still be on Biden.

Meanwhile, the stock market has gone down significantly since Trump took office, while consumer confidence is slipping. The media blames that on Trump and his tariffs. But it more has to do with the media’s non-stop claims that Trump’s tariffs will raise prices and even cause a recession. Both the stock market and consumer confidence have more to do with perception than reality.

Prices have risen, but not nearly as much as during most of Biden’s presidency, when consumer inflation hit a high of 9.1% and wholesale inflation reached double-digits. Inflation has been hovering between 2.5-3.0%. That is still higher than the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%. And it is fears The Fed will not lower interest rates that is also hurting the stock market and consumer confidence.

We really will not know the full effect of Trump’s policies for many months, even a year or two. But hopefully, things will have turned around by the midterms in 2026.

War in Ukraine and the Middle East

During the campaign, Trump said he could stop the war in Ukraine “on day one.” That was Trump’s usual bluster, and no one seriously thought that would happen. But he has taken steps to bring both Putin and Zelensky to the negotiation table, and that is good.

His attempt was stifled somewhat by the blow up in the Oval Office between Him and Vance versus Zelensky. I think Trump was irked from the start by Zelensky not wearing a suit. That showed Zelensky had little respect for the USA and all that we have done for him and his country, at least in Trump’s mind. That then led Trump to accuse Zelensky of not being grateful.

But heads eventually cooled, and we should still get an agreement with Zelensky for mineral rights in Ukraine. That then will give us more incentive to get the war over. But it will require Ukraine making land concessions, probably all of Crimea and the Donbass region. That latter makes sense, as the region is mostly Russian speaking and Russian culturally, while Crimea has been under Russian control since Obama was president, since 2014. That takeover was at the heart of the first Trump impeachment, that I detail in my three-volume set Dems Cannot Beat Trump, So They Impeach Trump. See that set for details in that regard.

But here, Ukraine might not be happy with those concessions, but they would be better than a never-ending war that will leave Ukraine devastated.

Meanwhile, after a Middle East peace deal was brokered while Biden was still president, but with input and help from incoming Trump officials, that deal has pretty much fallen apart. That is because Hamas remains the despicable degenerates they always have been. A turning point was when Hamas was supposed to return a family of dead hostages, but they failed to return the correct woman! But even worse has been the reaction of the so-called Palestinians at the return of hostages. They are cheering for dead Jewish hostages while mocking living ones.

Such despicable and antisemitic behavior by “Palestinians” is why a “two-state” solution will never work. Israel cannot exist with a nation on both sides of it who hate its very existence. Those “both sides” are Gaza and the West Bank. And yes, the latter is its full name. It is not “The Occupied West Bank.” I say that as whenever the media refers to the West Bank, it always includes the word “occupied,” as if that word is part of its name.

However, the West Bank is not occupied. It is a part of Israel. At the time of Christ, the area of the West Bank was known as Samaria and Judea. The events of the Gospels occurred in those areas, along with the early chapters of the Book of Acts. For more in this regard, see my articles Bethlehem: Not an “Occupied” Town and God’s Land Promise to Israel.

That said, Biden handcuffed Israel in its efforts to eradicate Hamas. But that is what needs to be done (see Israel-Hamas War - Israel Must Eradicate Hamas, Just As the USA Did with Al Qaeda After 9/11). But Trump took the gloves off of Israel, so hopefully, they can finish the job and end this war by winning it.

Trump’s Expansionism Desires

Trump has expressed the desire to make Canada the 51^st state, to annex Greenland as a US territory, and to turn Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

I would not like for Canada to become the 51^st states, as it is very liberal. As such, that would give Dems two more liberal Senators. Canada’s population is about 40 million, the same as California. It has 52 reps in the US House, so Canada would have about the same. Most of those would be liberal, thus assuring a Dem-controlled House. And come the next presidential election, its 54 electoral college votes could tip the scales toward the Dem candidate.

But in reality, I think Trump was just trolling Canada and its former Prime Minister in calling him “Governor Trudeau.” I seriously doubt Trump would ever take steps to annex Canada.

But it is a different story for Greenland. That would be a good idea. Greenland is the world’s largest island (if you consider Australia to be a continent not an island). And Greenland’s placement at the Artic Circle, close to the USA, Europe, and Russia, makes it a strategic spot on the map. And it is filled with natural resources.

Greenland is currently a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but Denmark does not have the resources to fully exploit Greenland’s natural resources nor to protect it if Russia or even China makes a play for it. But the USA could do both.

As for Gaza, I think that is more bluster by Trump. The USA is not going to take it over. But things cannot go back to the way they were before 10/7, with Hamas in charge. And even if Israel is successful in eradicating Hamas, everyday “Palestinians” are so anti-Israel, they would be an ever-present threat to Israel, so they cannot be allowed to be in charge either. The only way the tensions will ever end is if the Middle East tries something completely different.

I am not sure exactly what that would be. But Trump’s proposal forces the neighboring countries to come up with a proposal of their own. Anything except the status quo before 10/7 would be an improvement.

Return of Marc Fogel

Marc Fogel is a Pittsburgh area resident. He was arrested in Russia for possessing medical marijuana during Biden’s term. Biden paid him no attention, as he does not check any of the intercessional boxes that made Biden care about such things.

Biden worked hard to get Brittany Griner released when she was arrested on the same charges, as she is a black, female, lesbian sinner. But Fogel is a white, normal man, so Biden simply did not care what happened to him. But Trump did. In fact, Trump promised Marc’s 95-yr old mother before his rally in Butler, PA on July 13, 2024, that he would work to get Marc released. Minutes later, Trump was shot. But that did not cause him to forget that promise.

Thus, shortly after Trump took office, Marc Fogel was released. And that was without releasing a Russian murderous thug, as Biden did to get Griner released. I detail that horrid exchange in my Biden books.

Revoking Security Clearances

Trump revoked the security clearances for the 51-former FBI directors and agents who lied and signed a letter saying the Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian disinformation.” It was not until that incident that I realized that former spooks kept their security clearances after they left the FBI. Trump also revoked the security clearance for Joe Biden, saying his cognitive decline makes him a security risk. Trump also revoked the security clearances for many others:

The list of those affected goes beyond Biden and his administration, targeting figures involved in Trump’s first impeachment trial, including Fiona Hill, Norm Eisen and Alexander Vindman. Former Secretaries of State Antony Blinken and Hillary Clinton are also named.

It also includes legal figures like New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, both of whom have pursued high-profile legal cases against Trump. Two Republican critics of Trump, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — who both served on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — were also included in the memo (NPR. Trump revokes).

The names related to Trump’s first impeachment trial should be recognized by readers of my Impeach trilogy. They were all members of Trump’s administration who turned on him. As I say in those books, Trump did not do a good job in “draining the swamp” when he first took office, and that came back to bite him in that first impeachment. That is why he has done a much thorough job this time. The Biased J6 Select Committee, and Liz’s and Adam’s role in it, are discussed in my book by that name.

The media is calling these security clearance revocations “payback.” But I don’t understand why such former officials should retain their clearances, so it is good they are being revoked.

Trump’s Speech to Congress/ Dems are Despicable

On March 4, 2025, Trump gave an Address to a Joint Session of Congress. It was technically not a State of the Union Address (SOTU), but it had all of the earmarks of one, with all its grandeur. However, Dems did not participate in any of it.

Dems did not rise and clap when Trump entered the chamber, as is always done by both sides of the aisle for the President. Dems did not rise and clap when Trump told the story of a 13-year-old brain cancer survivor and made him an honorary member of the Secret Service. Dems did not cheer for young man who had lost his father when Trump informed him, he was accepted to West Point. They did not cheer for Marc Fogel and his 95-year-old mom, whose story I already told.

And on it went. One heartwarming story was told and heroic American introduced after another, and Dems just sat on their hands, with sour looks on their faces. Their hatred for Trump overrode their supposed love for real and heroic Americans.

Trump gave the longest such speech ever, about 1:40, but it was so gripping with the recounting of the litany of successes he had accomplished in just 40 days and the aforementioned stories, that it did not seem that long.

The iconic image of this speech should have been the 13-year-old cancer survivor high-fiving the newly minted West Point cadet. Instead, it was Dem Rep Al Green shaking his cane at Trump. He was escorted out of the chamber by the Sergeant at Arms and later censured by the House for his outburst. But he and Dems in general saw nothing wrong with his actions, feeling Trump is such a menace that such outbursts are justified.

DOGE

“Waste, fraud, and abuse.” I have been hearing that phrase for as long as I can remember. Every President since Ronald Reagan has claimed there is much of it in the federal bureaucracy that needs to be rooted out. But rather than that ever happening, the federal government has grown larger, and America has gone further into debt. We first incurred one trillion in debt under Reagan, but it has now grown to almost $40 trillion.

Trump made it his mission to reverse that trend and to truly reduce the size and scope of the federal government. To that end, he established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, as its figure head.

Musk and his team of tech wizards and CEOs have exposed much in the way of waste, fraud, and abuse, from billions given to other countries to promote the sinful and destructive LGBTQ movement and discriminatory Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, to millions of people over 120 years-old and two million illegal aliens let in by Biden being on the Social Security roles.

Thousands of unnecessary and unproductive federal employees have been given the option of severance packages or to be fired outright. And unused federal buildings have been identified as opportunities for being sold.

If carried out, all of these recommendations would save the federal government and thus we the taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and would reduce the overreach of the government into our lives and the spread of damaging woke ideologies around the world.

Musk especially signaled out the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for reduction. It has been the channel for spreading those woke ideologies, with little good being done through it. Musk said it was, “not an apple with worms but a ball of worms.”

The media has been intent on pointing out every possible problem with these cuts. And yes, there are times when international aid is needed, like with the recent earthquakes in Myanmar that the USA was slow to respond to due to these cuts.

However, my thought is along the lines of Musk, in that he and his team should use a chainsaw to cut out all possible fat, then add back in what is truly missed and found to have filled a genuine need. In this case, due to the slow response of the USA, China moved in as the primary giver of aid. That is not good, as once China gets its claws into a country, it will be hard to remove their influence over it.

This article is concluded at Political Commentaries for Q1 of 2025: Part Two.

References:

See end of Part Two

The 2020 Election, the January 6 “Insurrection,” and Their Aftermath

Five books cover every aspect of the 2020 Election, the January 6 “insurrection,” and their aftermath. Starting with claims of fraud and irregularities in that election, to the tragic events of January 6, 2021 (J6; the so-called insurrection), the subsequent second impeachment of Donald J. Trump, to the public hearings of the J6 Commission in the summer and fall of 2022. Also reproduced in these books is all Trump had to say about all of these and related matters during this time period.

The above article was posted on this website on April 2, 2025.

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